Ratchet: Deadlocked

"Ratchet Deadlocked Just Doesn't Live Up to the Past Games"

Insomniac is a great company. They put out a great line of platformers in the form of spyro, the great quality games, all linked by one factor: fun. The same can be said for the Ratchet and Clank series. Ratchet and Clank had a great, innovative mix of platforming and weapons. Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando added upgraded weapons, and Up Your Arsenal adds online play. On all of Insomniac's work, I have spent more than 300 hours in complete gaming bliss. The same cannot be said for Ratchet: Deadlocked. It lacks innovation, solid gameplay, good graphics, and most importantly, it lacks fun. Now I'll break it down into categories.

Graphics: The graphics in this game are about exactly the same as the graphics in Ratchet and Clank, Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando, and Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal. If there actually were any updates at all, they are not noticable, at all. Back in 2001 Ratchet and Clank's graphics were very impressive. But now, nearing 2006, those graphics just simply don't cut it. Not much eye candy here. I'll give insomniac this at least: there are no problems with view horizons, you can see just about as far as possible.

Sound: Although sound doesn't really make or break a game, having good sound can make a game experience that more enjoyable. The sound effects of the weapons are fine, but I found myself turning off the audio and listening to my itunes far too often. The game's audio doesn't offer too much.

Gameplay: One word: Repetitive. You do the same thing on every single planet. Capture the nodes with your wrench while killing the enemies. It's actually pretty enjoyable the first, and even the second time. But really, after 12 quickly put together levels that just simply lack any sort of innovation, I'm starting to get pretty irritated. Now, Insomniac tries to mix it up a bit with vehicle missions too, but to tell you the truth, I would rather do work than control one of these vehicles. And I don't like doing work. The vehicles try to immitate halo with their control system, but they just end up controlling like ****. You are always in a constant struggle with the controls of your vehicle. Now, I have to give Ratchet: Deadlocked props for one thing. Unlike Ratchet 1, 2, and 3, you can change the difficulty level to suite your personal skill. Additionally, this game adds co-op (finally) that is only the second thing this game did right. There is one flaw in the co-op though. You and your partner have to share weapons. That right, you both can't use the same weapon at the same time. This is extremely frustrating, and almost made me mad enough to rip my disc in half when I realized this.

Presentation: When I first saw previews of this game, being a Ratchet and Clank fan, I was absolutely horrified with Deadlocked's new darker style. I have to say that the darker style doesn't seem to have changed anything in itself. However, it seems that the game's dark overtone has affected the series' trademark humor. While Insomniac put a lot of work into making this game funny, I have to say, this game's jokes are funny for the fact that they are supposed to be jokes. (If you didn't catch that, I said that they aren't funny, no matter how hard they try to be). Yet another thing this game doesn't do right...

Length/Replay Value: When I bought this game, I was planning to play the single player through a few times to get 100%, then spend hundreds of hours online like I did with Up Your Arsenal. However, I barely got through the single player once, and I had just played online for about 10-15 hours when I was just too fed up to play it any more. I don't even know how I got myself to play this game even that much. After about half an hour, I got insaley bored. I only played this game for as much as I did because I was playing co-op mode. Oh, and in case you wanted to know, I beat this game in 10 hours. Compare that to your average platformer: 20 hours. Your average RPG: 50 hours. Your average shooter: 20 hours.

Multiplayer/Online: It is quite evident that Insomniac tried very hard for online to be good. However, it isn't, and I'll tell you why. The gameplay is similar to single player, except there are much more complications. Online has about a 10 hour learning curve until you can understand anything that's going on, or until you can figure out what keeps killing you so fast. Online play seems to be a race to see who can get the landstalker first. In games where the landstalker is turned off (luckily you can do that) the game is a race to see who can upgrade their weapon first. This usually happens about 30 seconds into gameplay, and when it does, the game is all but over. Domination and practical invincibility ensues. The new game modes King of the Hill and Juggernaut add nothing new, as they are just spin offs of Halo game modes, and poorly executed spinoffs at that. Online play in Ratchet: Deadlocked is a bore fest.

QUICK SUMMARY:

PROS:

Co-op
Adjustable Difficulty Level

CONS:

Lacks innovation
Sound makes your ears bleed
Completely devoid of humor
Sharing weapons for co-op
Online play is just as bad as single player, if not worse
Very short, just 10 hours
Frustrating controls
Repetitive
Repetitive
Repetitive
Repetitive
Repetitive

OVERALL SCORE: 2/10

Why such a low score? I gave it a two for the number of things this game did right. Don't buy this game. If you are dying to play it, rent it or use gamefly. This game turned me from a die-hard Insomniac fan to someone will never touch anything made by Insomniac.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 12/13/05